When he left Atlanta in 2008 for California, Jeff Haynie, the serial technology entrepreneur and co-founder of Appcelerator, departed with some tough words about the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, relative to other cities across the nation that have a tech focus.
That the tough and somewhat controversial critique came from a native son of Georgia, made it that much more of a hard realization to face.
But Haynie, who always remained connected to Georgia and Atlanta’s technology ecosystem, has a new perspective on Atlanta. He was keynote speaker of the 2016 ATDC Startup Showcase and was able to experience how the community has grown and developed since his move to the West Coast.
In his most recent blog post, “A review of the Atlanta startup ecosystem,” Haynie shares his impressions of the regions efforts and initiatives.
“A lot has changed in Atlanta since 2008 — and almost all of it for the better,” Haynie wrote. “While Atlanta will never be Silicon Valley (and nor should it try), it is a good place to start and grow a business and it’s getting easier and better every single day.”
Among the things that make it good place to start and develop a business are its assets for entrepreneurs, such as ATDC, he wrote.
“ATDC — this location is the oldest and still probably at the top of the stack when it comes to premiere startup real estate and great startup advisors,” Haynie wrote in his blog. “It’s become the location by which a lot of businesses — both startups and large companies — have dropped anchor. In fact, recently NCR broke ground on a new global headquarters, which they are building right next door to the ATDC building. ATDC currently also houses not only startups but has partnered with several large public companies such as Home Depot…to host their corporate innovation centers in their building and collaborate with ATDC.”
All of that activity is creating a thriving ecosystem.
“There’s plenty of quantity now — hopefully we’ll continue to see more quality as more startups start and fail and as some eventually continue to succeed,” he wrote. “At this point, Atlanta just needs to keep doing what it’s doing.”
Read his blog at this link.